Teen Power.

• Author: Longman, Jere
• Position: Cheryl Haworth, weight lifter - Brief Article

AMERICAN WEIGHT LIFTER CHERYL HAWORTH, 17, IS A STRONG CONTENDER FOR THE 2000 OLYMPIC GAMES

Cheryl Haworth has picked up a few words of Chinese that could help her communicate with her top competition in weight lifting at the 2000 Summer Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. The problem is, the words include the phrase "You can never have enough slave laborers," and she learned them from Bart Simpson.

OK, so maybe this isn't exactly in keeping with the Olympic spirit of international solidarity, but Haworth doesn't really plan to use the words anyway. "How do you know if they're true?" she asks with a laugh. "I heard them on The Simpsons."

Around the gym in Savannah, Georgia, where she lives, the 17-year-old Haworth goes by the nickname Fun. She merrily sings a Simpsons ditty about our most ineffective Presidents, rattles off the polysyllabic names of the body's most obscure muscles, knows most of Poe's "The Raven" by heart, and creates drawings so lifelike they resemble photographs.

Now a senior in high school, she is also the best American hope, man or woman, for an Olympic medal in weight lifting at the 2000 Games, which run from September 15 to October 1. Haworth is one of a small group of teenagers (see "Rising Stars," page 24) who are expected to be strong contenders in Sydney.

HEAVY MEDALS

Women's weight lifting will be a medal sport for the first time this year, and, at 5 feet 9 inches, 300 pounds, Haworth will provide a riveting presence in the superheavyweight division with her size, agility, speed, balance, and strength. She took a bronze medal at the 1999 world championships and won a preliminary Olympic event in Sydney last spring, having deftly translated her raw power into the technique and velocity needed for success in international lifting.

FAST, FLEXIBLE, FORMIDABLE

Haworth can run the 40-yard dash in 5.5 seconds and leap 30 inches straight up from a standstill. She has the flexibility to do a full split, and jumps on and off 2 1/2-foot-tall wooden boxes to increase the fast-twitch explosiveness in her legs. "A lot of football coaches come in here, and I think they would die for someone that fast, flexible and strong," says Michael Cohen, Haworth's personal coach and the American women's coach in Sydney. "I've never seen another woman that strong."

EARLY ILLNESS

A sickly child, Cheryl had her tonsils and adenoids removed when she was 6, and as she grew healthier, she began to gain weight, according to her mother, Sheila...